Job 9:12

9:12 If he snatches away, ¹  who can turn him back? ² 

Who dares to say to him, ‘What are you doing?’

Ecclesiastes 8:4

8:4 Surely the king’s authority ³  is absolute; ⁴ 

no one can say ⁵  to him, “What are you doing?”

Daniel 4:35

4:35 All the inhabitants of the earth are regarded as nothing. ⁶ 

He does as he wishes with the army of heaven

and with those who inhabit the earth.

No one slaps ⁷  his hand

and says to him, ‘What have you done?’

Romans 9:20

9:20 But who indeed are you – a mere human being ⁸  – to talk back to God? ⁹  Does what is molded say to the molder, “Why have you made me like this?” ¹⁰ 

¹ tn E. Dhorme (Job, 133) surveys the usages and concludes that the verb חָתַף (khataf) normally describes the wicked actions of a man, especially by treachery or trickery against another. But a verb חָתַף (khataf) is found nowhere else; a noun “robber” is found in Prov 23:28. Dhorme sees no reason to emend the text, because he concludes that the two verbs are synonymous. Job is saying that if God acts like a plunderer, there is no one who can challenge what he does.

² tn The verb is the Hiphil imperfect (potential again) from שׁוּב (shuv). In this stem it can mean “turn back, refute, repel” (BDB 999 s.v. Hiph.5).

³ tn Heb “word.”

⁴ tn Heb “supreme.”

⁵ tn Heb “Who can say…?”

⁶ tc The present translation reads כְּלָא (kÿla’), with many medieval Hebrew MSS, rather than כְּלָה (kÿlah) of BHS.

⁷ tn Aram “strikes against.”

⁸ tn Grk “O man.”

⁹ tn Grk “On the contrary, O man, who are you to talk back to God?”

¹⁰ sn A quotation from Isa 29:16; 45:9.